Letters5: v. 21b, Luther's Letters 1533-1546 (English) (Part 5 of 5); Translation notes

      This concludes from Part 4 in a series presenting the St. Louis Edition's Luther's Letters. — We conclude this series with the English (machine) translation of volume 21b, Luther's letters for the years 1533 to 1546. There is so much one could comment on.  I chose an excerpt from his letter to Prince George of Anhalt, the Lutheran leader in his area, on January 29, 1545 – about 2 weeks before his passing (No. 3299, column 3188-3189). Note the comment on the assembling of the infamous Council of Trent:

"… I believe that E. F. G. [Your Highness] has heard that the Councilium [Council of Trent] was opened, that is, begun, by thy Pope (as they call it). But the middle will be slow, and the end nothing, but that the Roman sirens plague the people, as is the custom, style, nature, and from-of-old ingrained unworthiness in this Babylon. Let the Lord arise and scatter His enemies, Amen, Amen."

As E. G. W. Keyl, an early Missourian father, judged in the 1845 Der Lutheraner, vol. 2, p. 53:

"How briefly and accurately Luther described in the above words the entire course of that Council [of Trent], which lasted for 28 years and was concluded with a terrible curse on all heretics, including, of course, the Lutherans.

Now we present the second volume of Luther's Letters from the venerable St. Louis Edition:

The following is only a partial excerpt, the first 81 pages:

English: The full DOCX file >> HERE << (*) (2 MB!); PDF (7 MB) or Internet Archive HERE.

German: The full DOCX original file may be downloaded >> HERE <<.

Although the New Series of CPH's Luther's Works series promised a new volume of over 200 more letters in English, it is not yet available.  So this translation of all of the St. Louis Edition's letters of Luther will provide almost all of those from the "New Series". 

      This concludes the "Luther's Letters" 2-part Volume 21, but we plan to offer many more volumes of the St. Louis Edition in the near future. Volume 16 is planned next, which contains many letters around the time of the Augsburg Confession.

      Translation notes: (see notes in "Read more" section below)

Carl Manthey-Zorn's Christmas Day devotion

      Carl Manthey Zorn published a wonderful book of short devotions for every day of the year: Crumbs—Short Devotions for All Days of the Year Presented to the Christian People of German (now English) Tongue, (or Brosamlein: kurze Andachten für alle Tage des Jahres dem Christenvolke deutscher Zunge dargeboten. The following is his devotion for Christmas Day, now in English.  It takes only a few minutes to read:

First Christmas Day.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6.

This is the prophecy whose fulfillment Christianity celebrates today.

Joseph had received the news from God through an angel that his bride Mary was the virgin of whom Isaiah (7:14) had prophesied, and had taken her to himself at God's command. But this was in Nazareth in Galilee, and in Bethlehem in Judea, according to the prophecy of Micah (5:1), Christ was to be born. And so it came to pass at that time that a commandment went out from the ruler of the world, the emperor Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was the very first. And every man went to be appraised, every man to his own city. Then Joseph also arose, and went with Mary his trusted wife to Bethlehem, the city of David, because he was of the house and family of David. And when they were there, the time came for Mary to give birth. And she bare her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger: for they had no other place in the inn. (Luk. 2:1-7.)

Christians! To us this Child is born, to us this Son is given — to be our Savior. Poor He lay in the manger; but on His fine shoulder was the dominion of heaven and earth. Is this wonderful? Yes. This Child is Himself the "Wonderful One," for He is God, and He is man, and above nature He is conceived and born. This Child is the counsel, which by itself creates counsel for us lost and damned sinners, who neither know nor can create counsel. It is the powerful hero, the strong God, who crushes the head of the devil and redeems us. It is the Eternal Father for us, His redeemed; His blessed children we shall be here temporally and then there eternally. He is the Prince of Peace: whoever is in His kingdom has peace in his heart and conscience, until the eternal streams of peace without end end with Him. O Christians, Christians, grasp this Child in faith!

Prayer.

Lord God, heavenly Father, I thank you for your great grace and mercy, that you allowed your only begotten Son to come into our flesh and through Him graciously save us from sins and eternal death. I beseech thee, enlighten my heart by thy Holy Spirit, that I may be grateful to thee for such grace, that I may be comforted by it in all trouble and distress, and that I may thus be eternally saved through Him, my Saviour. Amen.

A little child as light as a feather Is born to us today Of a virgin pure and clean To comfort us poor people. If we had not had this child,

We would all be lost.  Salvation is for us all. O sweet Jesus Christ,  That you were born man.  Protect us from hell!

Pastor Eissfeldt remembers Walther & Wyneken (1931 CHIQ)

Pastor Eissfeldt († 1935)

     I previously published an excerpt from Pastor Carl Eissfeldt's 1931 essay "Personal Reminiscences of Walther and Wyneken."  The full article was so informative that I want to publish the full essay even though the original essay from the Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly is freely available at CTS-FW Media. Eissfeldt's testimony reveals the greatness of both of his subjects, but especially that of C. F. W. Walther. 

      Further research reveals that Pastor Eissfeldt was a maternal grandfather of Stella Wuerffel, the author of the book Two Rivers to Freedom. This book was praised by CHI Director August Suelflow for its depiction of the early Saxon German Lutheran immigrants. 

Excerpts:

65: "my dear, unforgettable teacher and friend Prof. Dr. C. F. W. Walther"

65: "We children were not afraid of Walther, … we felt drawn towards him. Still a certain feeling of respect prevented intimacy on our part." [Walther did not treat little children with excessive leniency, or indulge them, so that they were left with an impaired disposition (spoiled) for their parents to try to control again. Walther maintained respect for the parents' role in the family.]

70: Walther: “How would you feel if these people would see you there and from your presence draw the conclusion, ‘If a future pastor comes here, then we may visit any show?’ Would that be a matter of indifference to you?” … Eissfeldt:  “Naturally I remained at home.”

70: "…Dr. Walther’s patience in dealing with his opponents. His firmness and tenacity in clinging to the clear doctrine of the Word of God"

71: "Even when one of the opponents publicly charged Walther with being a liar, he remained calm and collected."

71: "those charging us with Calvinism. … Never have I seen Walther so downcast"

72: "…he soon succeeded in instilling in me a real love for the ministry by pointing out to me how precious a work it was to serve the Lord in the vineyard of His Church."

The following is the full essay, minus the pictures which are available in the original publication:

Of particular interest were the differences that Eissfeldt describes between Wyneken and Walther. While Wyneken's showed boldness and forcefulness in certain situations, Walther relied on God's Word to do the work of convincing opponents. — What a wonderful first-hand, heartfelt account of these 2 fathers of the Old Missouri Synod!

MLPic2: eagle eyes, as a lion, "genuine Luther picture"– Walther (Part 2 of 3)

      This continues from Part 1, a short series on F. W. Wehle's great portrait of Martin Luther. — Walther's overview of the notable features in images of Luther is most instructive — he puts into words what is so distinctive about Luther's physical appearance. Again, from 1882 Der Lutheraner, vol. 38, p. 104 [EN]:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  

The most beautiful Luther picture

“One cannot get enough of the picture.”

[by C. F. W. Walther] (concluded from Part 1)

 

Luther's "eagle eyes"

Thus, for example, Dr. Erasmus Alberus, who as a student saw Luther daily in his lectures for years and also later had much contact with him, described Luther as follows: 

“He had a fine, clear, brave face and eagle eyes and was of limbs a beautiful person.” F. S. Keil, who in 1764 published an excellent book on “Luther's Strange Circumstances of Life”, adds: “Of these ‘eagle eyes’ (Luther's) it is remarkable that they have been passed on to his children, grandchildren and children's children. All accurate pictures show such eyes. Whoever has seen such a portrait will also perceive such eyes in all children of Luther's heritage. And to whom these portraits are known, and sees a Luther child of Luther’s heritage, even if he does not know it, he will say: “that is a Luther face”. Keil also makes the remark that all portraits of Luther, which are found in noble courts, in cabinets and large public libraries, also agree that Luther had a somewhat blunt nose, raised lips and short frizzy hair.

<<--[Luther's "mane']

The famous physician Dr. Ratzeberger, Luther's godfather, remarks in his description of Luther's life that he “had a long-haired mane like a lion on his forehead”.  

The well-known highly learned theologian Valentin Ernst Löscher, who had one of the largest private libraries and collections of portraits of Lutheran theologians, says of Luther: “The blessed man was of healthy and firm constitution, which was not soon weakened even by his almost unbearable work. The stocky stature, the complete (full) face, together with the lively color indicated it.” 

Cranach the Younger, Luther portrait

When in 1746 the second secular celebration of Luther's death was celebrated in many places in Germany, a commemorative publication by the Wittenberg professor Karl Gottlob Hoffmann dealing with this subject was published in Latin, in which he reports, among other things, the following: “On the southern wall of the church, next to Luther's grave, there is a picture of Luther mounted on a wooden panel (see here), painted by Lucas Cranach the Younger, the world-famous painter from Wittenberg, in life-size, exactly in the shape and physique that the great man had in life, as Menz assures us. The face is heroic, the eyes sparkling, the whole face reveals a peculiar bravery of spirit and majesty, which can hardly be described in words and which inspires the highest awe in all onlookers. 

[Luther’s robe]-->>

Therefore, what Melchior Adam recalled in his biography is confirmed: ‘He was of a lion-like vivacity of eye, so that not all could bear the look of it.’ The habit is the same that the church servants wore in Saxony at that time, namely a black and wrinkled robe hanging down to the ankles.” —

We have taken the liberty of informing our readers of this, partly in order to draw their attention to the fact that God has really already stamped the outward appearance of his great armament Luther as a miracle man, partly because it is therefore foolish to be satisfied with any image of Luther, even if it is a still so miserable distorted image or even if it is a beautiful one, which does not reflect Luther's true impressive figure at all and therefore also creates a completely wrong idea of it.

Therefore, it gives us great pleasure to be able to report to our readers that the Luther picture just published by our dear F. W. Wehle in Milwaukee really has all the characteristics of a genuine Luther picture, which all reliable descriptions and still existing old faithful Luther pictures demand. Mr. Wehle has designed it not only on the basis of years of study, but also with a devotion to his subject, as it can only be found in a Lutheran, who is one out of the liveliest conviction and with all his heart. This painting is by no means about monetary gain. Mr. Wehle did not want the work to praise himself, the master, but to praise Luther, the original. In our opinion, this painting surpasses all its predecessors and contemporaries. This judgment does not give us blind partial love for our painter, but compels us to love Luther, of whom we wish that he be presented to the Lutherans of our time, even in his outward appearance, not like a fine diplomat, or like an emotional theologian, or like a coarse unpolished dull man, but just as he was, as God the Lord created and formed him. 

The picture by Wehle, a lithograph, shows Luther in full stature and in his best years, standing at a desk in the room of a castle [not "reading in a church"], stepping with one foot on a torn indulgence slip, pointing with the index finger of his right hand to a place of the open Bible lying in front of him and looking around him with an expression that expresses his faith resting on God's Word, as on an unshakable rock. One cannot get enough of the picture. The original is a large oil painting, which the painter intends to dedicate to the projected new Concordia Seminary. [An Internet search came up empty on this – who has this painting now?  Did CSSL ever receive the painting??]

The price of a copy is set as low as it was possible, namely to one dollar. May this beautiful picture soon adorn all the houses of our Lutherans! It can be obtained both from our Concordia publishing house and from the painter himself. Don the latter at the address: Mr. F. W Wehle, 107 Wisconsin St., Milwaukee, Wis.      W. [Walther]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

      According to 1909 St. Louis history book Historical and Interesting places of Saint Louis, “Among the art pieces in this school is a painting "Martin Luther" by F. W. Wehle, the gift of the artist.” But a search of CSSL websites turned up no evidence that they still have this painting, so at best they don't promote it, at worst they got rid of an Old Missouri treasure. Perhaps CHI possesses it now. — As stated above, this Wehle painting is the frontispiece page in at least two magisterial books of Luther's life, the books of Pastor Herman Fick and Johann Mathesius,  from the Old German Missouri Synod. — In the next Part 3, we find another writing in Der Lutheraner of 1882 on this "genuine Luther picture." Also more on the painter Wehle.

Letters4: v. 21a, Luther's Letters 1507-1532, in English (Part 4 of 5)

      This continues from Part 3 in a series presenting the St. Louis Edition's Luther's Letters. — Now we present the English translation (by DeepL) of Volume 21a, Luther's letters for the years 1507 to 1532. In this period are the letters associated with the Diet of Augsburg which led to the establishment of the Lutheran Church through the Augsburg Confession.  Many, if not most, of the letters associated with this period are connected with the Diet of Augsburg at which the Confession was presented.  Now let us hear again what C. F. W. Walther had to say about these letters:

As for Luther's letters, let him read especially on the preparation for the Diet of Augsburg (1530), and during that as well, and those dealing with the proceedings of the Diet, indeed all letters relating to church events. No better letters have been written. Such courage of faith, such boldness and assurance of victory is unequaled. You get just the right sense of the events if you read what Luther wrote about it.

Many of the letters associated with this period were published in other volumes of the St. Louis Edition, especially Volume 16, which I hope to publish soon. (keep watching this blog for more volumes to come). However there are many letters from this period that are found in this volume 21a. The following letter, written on the day that the Augsburg Confession was presented, is just one of the letters not published by the American Edition, Old or New Series:

No. 1584.

Fortress Coburg. June 25, 1530.

To Nicolaus Hausmann in Zwickau.

News from the Diet of Augsburg. Luther is busy with the translation of Ezekiel.

      To the man to be highly honored in the Lord, Mr. Nicolaus Hausmann, Bishop of the people at Zwickau, his brother and superior.

      Grace and peace in Christ! I have ordered my family in Wittenberg, my dear man, to send to you in Zwickau all the news they have received from us, from which you will know what is happening in Augsburg at this Imperial Diet. I hope that all this has reached you, for I do not have time to write everything to everyone. Let us only pray diligently, as we have done hitherto, remembering how our fathers were saved. "The hand of the Lord is not shortened" [Isa. 59:1], then the matter is not ours, but His; He will surely hear us.

      I have written to your brother Valentin, and comforted him as much as I could; you will see to it that the letter is given to him. I have leisure here now and am working on the translation of Ezekiel; in the meantime I am also doing some other things.

      The papists indeed raged mightily, but our prince, gifted with an admirable constancy, confessed Christ freely. Likewise also Margrave George. The unbelievable mildness of the Emperor is extraordinarily praised; he seems to have been provided by God with a good angel. You will learn more from Wittenberg. In the meantime, you too pray for me, O man of God; in fine grace be well with you for eternity, Amen. From the desert, on Saturday after John the Baptist's day [25 June] 1530.

Your Mart. Luther.

The following is only a partial excerpt including the first 200 letters (1st 131 pages):  

English: The full DOCX >> HERE << (2 MB!;  Direct); PDF (7 MB); or Internet Archive HERE

German: The full DOCX original file may be downloaded >> HERE <<.

Many weeks were spent on these volumes (21a and 21b) to make not just the Fraktur German, but even the Latin text available. Again, these files are most useful if used in conjunction with the online Luther's Letters Index (blog here). One may cross reference the letters across several other editions and compare these with the DeepL machine translations to see how well the machine translation did, or how badly the previous translations were done.  And as I review again the American Edition that Concordia Publishing House sells (volumes 48, 49, and 50) it does have many helpful comments, along with incorrect and spiritually blind commentary, about the surrounding conditions, people involved, and matters of language and phrases. The best case is that the reader have the American Edition volumes for comparison with the more complete St. Louis Edition. —  More notes on the English translation to follow in the concluding Part 5 where we publish the second part, Volume 21b.

Most beautiful picture of Luther: F. W. Wehle; Greatest Christmas gift (Part 1 of 3)

      A flood of thoughts came to mind when I ran across a short article, in the July 1, 1882 Der Lutheraner, p. 104 [EN] by C. F. W. Walther, with the above title.  The article was in an extremely small font and, after translating the entire article, I believe Walther insisted that the typesetter squeeze a large article into the few remaining column-inches available in that issue of the Der Lutheraner.  

Great Christmas gift, up to 22x28 poster
(full size JPG download here)

As I began to translate it, I wondered what picture of Luther was being introduced by Walther.  I wondered “Could it be the image that was used in Pastor Hermann Fick's masterful book entitled Das Lutherbuch?  So a quick Google search of the painter's name and "Luther" turned up the treasure that I would have paid for, but found it for free at the Library of Congress site. Full size JPEG download >> HERE << (8MB, 6941x8569; "No known restrictions on publication".) There is a very pleasant aspect of the Library of Congress free high-resolution image — it is not copyrighted by anyone like Getty Images or some other organization.  It is free to download and print to as large as 22 in. x 28 in. (CPH should be selling these.)  That makes it suitable for about any church setting.  Walther thinks so too. — Before I get to Walther's writing, I would make a suggestion for anyone wanting a gift idea for a Lutheran.  I cannot think of a greater idea than a full size print made from the large JPEG file download above.  At 300 DPI, it will print a poster 22" x 28", the original lithograph size.  Of course it could be printed in a smaller size. For example, a 20" x 30" Lustre digital print at Target Stores is $30.

      Now Walther "hastens" to bring us his exuberant announcement in the 1882 Der Lutheraner, vol. 38, p. 104 [EN]:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 The most beautiful Luther picture

[by C.F.W. Walther]

we have ever seen reached us a few days ago. We therefore hasten to inform our dear readers herewith most dutifully. —

It is true that Luther's face has such peculiar features that probably few faces are so easy to capture as Luther's, so that everyone, after having seen some Luther pictures, at the sight of any one, however botched, immediately notices: This is Luther or this is supposed to be Luther. Consequently, many people are satisfied with any Luther picture; if they only find certain basic features of Luther's face in it, and now underneath it is written: “After Lucas Cranach”, then they think they have an absolutely faithful image of the great man, even though the portrait often contains partly quite alien features, partly lacks just those features that represent the true Luther, as he lived.  

Classic Cranach portrait

Many also think that it is quite futile to argue about which Luther image is the most accurate. After all, there is no one alive who has seen Luther face to face. Who could therefore say which image of Luther was the most faithful? But one is mistaken. For not only do we still have today pictures of Luther, which were made during his lifetime, among which, as is well known, [Lucas] Cranach's are indisputably the best; for the great painter Cranach was not only Luther's contemporary, but also his co-religionist and intimate friend; we also have exact descriptions of Luther's outward appearance by contemporaries of his, according to which even the best pictures from the time of Luther's life are capable of perfection.

- - - - - - - - - - - -  Continued in Part 2  - - - - - - - - - - - - -

There is much more to come on why this picture became the frontispiece of two major publications from the Old German Missouri Synod.  In the next Part 2…

Letters3: Prof. Hoppe's Foreword; Index; comparisons (Part 3 of 5)

      This continues from Part 2 in a series presenting the St. Louis Edition's Luther's Letters. — The Editor for volumes 21a and 21b was Prof. A. F. (Albert Friedrich) Hoppe who had also edited many other volumes. He began this work in 1886, while Walther was still living, so he would have had at least Walther's approval, if not actually chosen by him. He remained with this task for 25 years, from 1886 to 1911, the year of his passing.

      In the following English translation of Hoppe's Foreword, we can glean what kind of scholarship went into these volumes.  We may then form an opinion on whether modern scholarship's aloof attitude towards the St. Louis Edition is warranted… or not.

Some excerpts from Hoppe's Preface:

— "…we have also followed this example to some extent by including many outside letters."
— "…we have included the letters in chronological order."

— "we are entirely dependent on the editions published in Germany for the reproduction of the letters, since we do not have the sources at our disposal here." [Although Hoppe did not have the source material, his scholarship is extensive. More on that later.]

— "… we have not been concerned solely with enriching Walch's and De Wette's editions, but primarily with correcting both the time indications and the text itself"

— "We have devoted the same effort and care to the German letters as we have to the Latin ones."

Prof. Hoppe's "Foreword" to the first volume of Luther's Letters, Volume 21a:

As mentioned in April this year, I hoped to bring the full digital OCR text of the St. Louis Edition, starting with Luther's Letters, volumes 21a and 21b. This work is necessary because the text of Google Books and HathiTrust is garbled due to the 2-column format, and their OCR "Plain text" does not retain the formatting. In the next Part 4, we begin with Volume 21a. — 

      After the break below, a comparison of a typical letter in 3 different translations: the American Edition (from Latin into English), the St. Louis Edition (from Latin to German to English-by-DeepL), and an abbreviated English translation published in 1913 by Preserved Smith:

Letters2- Fuerbringer announces StL vol. 21a & b (Part 2 of 5)

      This continues from Part 1 in a series presenting Luther's Letters. —  In this segment we publish an English translation of portions of Prof. Ludwig Fürbringer's announcements for the St. Louis Edition's Parts 1 and 2 of volume 21 from the years 1903 and 1904.  Of particular interest for me was his listing of sample letters and their subject matter.  From Der Lutheraner, vol. 59 (1903), p. 167-168: 

St. Louis Edition, from the Dau library,  historictrinity.org

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[St. Louis Edition, vol. 21a (1903)]

First part: Letters from the years 1507 to 1532. 

Herewith, the last volume of our great and beautiful Luther edition has been tackled and, for the time being, half of it has been completed. And also this new volume offers a rich, interesting and excellent content in the well-known splendid decoration that our publishing house has bestowed upon it. Certainly, among the twenty-one volumes of Luther's works published so far, there are even more important volumes than this one, which should be purchased and studied especially by Lutheran Christians. …

And now a short word about the content of these letters. How they throw so much light on the life of the great man of God and his friends and co-workers in the work of the Reformation and report on the progress of this work of God. How they show us the Reformer as the highly enlightened, conscientious teacher and pastor to whom one turns from all sides for instruction, counsel and comfort. How he knows how to help the erring on the right path, to give sure and excellent counsel in difficult doubts of conscience, to comfort so powerfully and warmly in distresses and temptations.  

We will pick out a few letters that our eyes come across while leafing through the volume, without having searched in any way for those that are particularly rich in content. Luther sends Spalatin an instruction on how to confess (No. 137); to Martin Seligmann, he answers the question of how a Christian, especially a pastor, should behave in the face of the plague and other plagues of the land (No. 221); in a letter to Paul Speratus, he praises Speratus's sermon and wishes to see it printed, and at the same time speaks out about the Bohemians' doctrine of Holy Communion (No. 494); to Elector John of Saxony, he makes suggestions on how to equip and visit the parishes (No. 933); to Landgrave Philip of Hesse, he advises not to hurry with the publication of the church order (No. 1052); to "all dear Christian people", he writes “a blessed story of Leonhard Kaiser in Bavaria, burned for the sake of the Gospel” (No. 1086); to Nikolaus Hausmann he thanks for the comfort he has received (No. 1143); to Conrad Cordatus he consoles him in the sufferings that the direction of his ministry brings (No. 1436); to Wenceslaus Link he consoles him over the death of his daughter and at the same time gives him information about a difficult passage of Scripture (No. 1565); to Spalatin he shares his opinion about a difficult marriage case (No. 1783); to Johann Brenz he writes about the doctrine of justification (No. 1813); to Robert Barnes in England he gives his opinion about the intended divorce of King Henry VIII of England (No. 1838); to the council of Torgau he asks for a scholarship for a student of theology (No. 1866).

But where would we stop, if we were to give even a slight insight into the contents of the letters. Every one of these letters, even though they will soon be four hundred years old, will be read with interest, very many with great benefit and to rich blessing. This is especially true of Luther's theological opinions and concerns, of which the old Lutheran theologian Conrad Porta, in his "Pastorale Lutheri," said more than three hundred years ago: “The man of God Lutherus, out of a strange and wonderful illumination of the Holy Spirit, bases himself before all others who have written anything on this subject, especially on the Holy Scriptures, and thus also shows the pastors how, according to the counsel of Jesus Sirach (9, 22.) they are to judge all their official matters, doings, and non-doings according to God's Word.” And in another place he says: “His (Luther's) counsels and concerns in grave and dangerous cases are glorious and good, and no one can easily improve them.”

Of the detailed, thorough and careful work of the proven editor, Mr. Professor A. F. Hoppe, also this volume again abundantly testifies. May the second half, which will contain Luther's letters from the year 1533 onwards, soon follow; then only the detailed index volumes, which are so valuable and necessary for the use of the entire great work, will be missing. And above all, may God the Lord bestow his rich blessing on all who diligently read and study Luther's words and writings.      L. F.

[Volume 21b (1904)]

Second part: Letters from the years 1533 to 1546. 

… a new volume has been completed almost every year, and with the present 21st volume, after the 22nd volume was published earlier, the enterprise has indeed been happily completed. The only thing that is still missing are the detailed index volumes, which are, however, so valuable and necessary for the use of the entire great work, and which our faithful Luther editor, Professor A. F. Hoppe, is currently working on. But that all the writings of Luther, the greatest teacher of the Church since the days of the holy apostles, have now been made available to us again in this complete and beautiful edition, is truly a cause to thank God and to diligently study and faithfully use what is presented to us in these writings. We cannot but heartily agree with the words of the preface to the present volume: “With this volume, by the grace of God, the reissue of the complete writings of Luther by Dr. Joh. G. Walch is now completed; praise, glory, and thanks be to God, who has faithfully assisted us in this great work for twenty-four years. May He grant that these glorious writings may also be diligently read, so that through the God-enlightened Luther we may ever better attain the right understanding of the Scriptures given by God, and, like him, grasp and hold them in fervent faith.”

As far as the just finished volume is concerned, already the title says that it contains all letters that Luther wrote or that were addressed to him, in total not less than 1541 numbers. About the letters of Luther we have already spoken in more detail in the description of the first half of this volume ("Lutheraner" 59, p. 167). How interesting these documents are! How important they are for the history of the Reformation! But above all, how much teaching and exhortation, comfort and encouragement they contain! How they give us a glimpse into the daily life, into the tremendous work of this man of God, who is approached from all sides and yet makes his time and strength available to all! …

L. F. [Ludwig Fürbringer]

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 

 We will hear more from the editor and translator Prof. Hoppe in the next Part 3.